A Sunday Stroll
September 25, 2006Anne and I decided that because we’ve been in Columbus for almost 7 weeks now it would probably be a good thing to take some time to walk around our neighborhood and see a little more of where we live. So far, the only places that we’ve really checked out have been the Speedway gas station at the end of our road and Honey Dip Donuts the local donutier (yes, that’s a newly-minted word) that’s on the corner across from Speedway.
Said donutier deserves a few comments of its own. Suffice it to say, the donuts made in this heavenly establishment are nothing short of extraordinary. I am simultaneously thrilled and mortified by their sugary goodness.
Anne and I stopped in on our first day in town to ask for directions to the local grocery store and ended up deciding to split a donut while we were there. This was a very bad idea. The donut was fantastic, the workers were exceptionally friendly, and when they found out that it was our first day in town they even gave us a few donuts for free. This donutier was simply amazing.
I saw a sign for Whole Wheat Donuts and asked what it was all about. The man behind the counter explained that one of their customers was always saying that they wished donuts were healthier, so they decided to make a donut out of whole wheat. This was temptation on a whole new level. No longer could I claim that I didn’t want a donut because it was unhealthy. In fact, I found myself making excuses to have their donuts on the basis of good health.
Conversations like the following were all too frequent:
Anne: Scott, where are you going?
Scott: Hmmm?
Anne: Where are you going?
Scott: Oh. Nowhere special. I was just going for a short walk.
Anne: Honey, you’ve already had seventeen donuts this week.
Scott: Yeah, but I’m feeling a little low on fiber today. And those whole wheat donuts… seriously Anne, they’re whole wheat. That means they’re good for me.
Simply put, I was hooked. Other donuts have since lost their savor. I not only became addicted, I became a donut snob. This from a man raised on week-old donuts (and who in fact actually lost and ate one of his own teeth while eating one of said donuts). If you’re lucky, you may one day get a package from me which has a donut from Honey Dip just for you. Enough about the donuts. Writing about them is making me drool all over my keyboard.
Where was I… oh yeah, our Sunday stroll.
We definitely should have done this earlier, but life has a funny way of getting so busy that you can forget to do the little things.
So, this afternoon we took our camera and went for a stroll. As Anne mentioned, we live right on the border of a really nice part of Columbus called Upper Arlington.
Upper Arlington is kind of like the Croisan Mountain of Salem or the Los Altos Hills of California. The streets are all lined with trees, the neighborhoods are very peaceful, a good number of people are always out walking or jogging, and everyone you meet is very friendly and open. The homes are almost all modest in size, but they’re all immaculately clean and beautifully trimmed. The home shown above is representative of most of the homes we saw on our walk today.
You’ll probably find pictures of Upper Arlington creeping up in my posts every once in a while because I’m pretty enamored with the area. The street we began our walk on today had apple trees growing on the side of the road and the trees were covered with apples, so I grabbed one to eat when we came home.
While we were walking we heard a rumbling behind us and looked back to see this awesome car.
Kudos to Anne for snapping off such a great pic with only two seconds notice.
Apparently it was a company car for Arlington Plumbing. Definitely the coolest plumber’s truck I’ve ever seen.
Just down the next street I snapped this cool picture of the first definitive tree of fall. 
I’m really excited to see fall in the east again. I still remember the trees that I saw in Pennsylvania during the fall of 2001 as some of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen. Anne and I are planning on taking a trip over to Pittsburgh in about three weeks and when we do we’ll be sure to take some good pictures.
We had been told by some of our neighbors that there was a jogging trail somewhere within the confines of the neighborhood we were wandering in and so we kept our eyes peeled for it. We eventually found what they must have been referring to, but it was definitely not a jogging trail. It was more of a sidewalk that crossed through a few small neighborhoods and ended in a park at the back of a school.
I took this picture of Anne looking cute while overlooking one of the three or four baseball diamonds in the park (note the apple she’s holding that I referred to earlier).
Also, here’s a picture of the both of us at the same spot: 
Kudos to Anne (again) for being able to take the picture while also being in the picture.
To get to the park we had to go over some stairs that crossed a pair of railroad tracks that were right next to the school’s park. We were standing there when we took the previous two pictures and when we saw the following: 
The car seemed very hesitant as it drove up and I could just imagine the conversation that the man and woman in the car were having.
Woman: Honey, I think we’re lost.
Man: We’re not lost. I know exactly where we are.
Woman: I know where we are too. We’re right in front of a set of stairs. Which our car can clearly not go over.
Man: Well if we’d brought the SUV like I suggested…
Woman: We are not having that conversation again. Can we just ask someone for directions?
Man: No. I told you. I know exactly where we are. I just need to go one street over and we’ll find a way to cross the tracks there.
Woman: *sighing to herself*
Anne and I had a quiet laugh to ourselves and then headed home.
On the way back I saw this beautiful shot. 
Hmmm… you know, for only having taken a handful of pictures in my life thus far I really did a pretty decent job on the photos today. Maybe I should drop out of medical school and become a professional photographer… hmmm… nah, probably not.
In any case… thanks for joining us for a Sunday stroll. Hope to see you back next time.
-Scott
